The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-09-11


Thar are eighteen names on tina
piece of plank down yonder by then
graves, and every one of 'em have go
y opposite, but one, which is er sigl
that they have been killed. They hav
all been killed but one, and he was tn
captain and the very main one that Lei
wanted to kill, for he heerd him give thu
order fire..
LEN had only one child left; she wa,
er baby, just u months old, and it go
so arter erwbIle that he couldn't stay a.
home and his wife couldn't stay, SO she
took the little babe aud started to &c
over into Georgia somewhere to some Of
her kin. She took the train at WeSt
Point and went up TO Atlanta, and tnal
she took the train to go 10 GAINESVILLE
1t was long train loaded with soldiers
and she was the only woman on the
whole tram and that little babe was the
only babe on the train. She was sitting
right on er seat by the stove that they
| keep on trains, though thar warn'T nc
fire, because it was summer and The lit
tie babe was sitting right down on the
| floor playing and everything was run
ming erlong smoothly when al of er
| sudden thar was a train come meeting
us and everything was tore all to pieces.
| Every body IN that box was badly hurt
or killed and Lens wife was killed, and
she had nothing erbout her to tell who
she was or whar she was from. The
Yankee prisoners that were aboard the
train on their way 10 Andersonville dug
into the dead and wounded and thar
was the mother, the only woman on the
train, dead, and the little babe sittin'
there playing with q piece of the shat
tered stove, saying: Ma. ma, ma; pa,
pa, pa, as it would laugh and hit the
floor with piece of the stove and pat
its little hands in puddle of it's moth
er's blood. Them war bad times.
Now, want to tell you erbout that
little babe and why it was that the cap
tain of the conscript gang that killed
Lens little girls escaped, while all the
rest war killed and Lens x mark put
opposite their names yonder on that
tree, and how it was l come to know all
erbout it.
Here old man Plunket moved off
few steps TO the spring-for we had long
since alighted from the wagon and had
eaten lunch under one of the oaks. At
ter the old man had drank and lit his
pipe be sat down and continued:
lone of them big Yankee prisoners
and washed the blood often it with some
water that mad run from the mashed up
tender, and he didn't know what to do
with the little thing, so he seed old man
Williams er sittln' off er piece. not much
hurt, and he took the little babe and
put it in his arms and told him to take
care of it. Old man Williams never had
no children, and he didn' know how to
manage the little thing, but he done the
best he could, and thar warn't nobody
else that wanted the babe, so the old
man had to keep it, and he growed to
love it the same as if it was his own lit
tie babe, and when he took it home and
give it to his old oman she fairly
danced, and they kept it and raised it,
and it was always called Lena Williams,
and it never did know and don't know
till this day any difference betwixt these
two old people and sure enough father |
and mother.
WELL" continued Plunkett, LENA |
growed up to be as pretty er young lady |
as thar was anywhere in Pike County, |
and she married arter q while, and old |
man Williams wllled her everything he |
had, and so she was rich and happy, and |
s to this day. hope.
The war was over and Len Clinton |
,IdI CcU OuI W LIdfSl IuC HOI1u OfcT, W |
ind his wife and little one and to fulfill |
tide his dead children, to kill every man
hat came to his house on that sad,
hight.
He wrote to every one in Georgia that
lie knew for intelligence of his wife and
title one. He could hear nothing. He
hen wrote in other states, and waited
md watched for their coming. Years
passed, his hair grew gray, he roved the
woods looking into every nook and
corner to see if he might not find the
zones OF his loved one, murdered and
lid away. He got to be called Crazy
len, people were afraid of him and he
lrifted off to Texas and then he come
Jack to Alabama, and then he went
,ver to Georgia, and he was Ground in
ny settlement and [ seed him and be
old me erbout all his troubles, and [
old him erbout the collision at Barnes
lille, and erbout the lone woman and
he little babe, and he would hardly
Wait for me to get through fore he was
If. and that's how [ come to know SO
much erbout him."
WELL continued Plunkett, Lien
vent to Barnesvllle, and he seed the
rave marked unknown and then he
7ent over the Olner size OF LeDulOn 10
Id man Williams settlement, and he
OF to the store close by where Lena and
er husband lived, and set down to rest
mint, leaning his gun, which he al
rays carried. up V the side of the
ouse, and while he was talking they all
1und out who 1t was, and some Of 'em :
IN and told Leua and her old man er-
out him ana here they come down to
ne store, and As they turned Ground
ne corner of the store within ten leet
where Len was sittin', Len raised his
cad, recognized the husband, grabbed
IS gun and threw it to his shoulder,
hen Lena sprang in front of her hus-
and and as her eyes met her fathers
e slowly lowered mis- gun and said:
IL won make the other X" turned
nd walked off and he's never been seen
Pike since and they just call him
razy. He may be erloOkiDg rig hit al US
ow. F. ks say he's always somewhere
rround here, and you couldn't get no
ody wat knows him to touch thing
n this place or to disturb erthing about
lat old house"
ARRIVAL AND CLOSING OF MAILS.